Nov

Professor Remarks: Post-Election

You may remember when we asked for your professors’ partisan opinionsbefore the election, but now that it’s all over, we’re looking to see what they thought of the results. Did Andrew Gelman go to sleep at 8:30 or party ’til the early morn? Is there surprise? Merriment? Bleary eyes? Tell us your story by either posting on the thread or emailing [email protected] and we’ll add it to the post!

Alan Brinkley: This is quite a day in history

[Massive applause]

I know there are many people in the country and maybe here who are disappointed, but probably not many. I have…I’ve never experienced anything like this in my lifetime and I think of my own years in college in the late 60 and 70s and the sense of despair and of failure and tragedy and then last night seeing, both on television and on the street, the hundreds and thousands of people on the street celebrating a political event, is something.

What will come I don’t know, but this is just an extraordinary moment, and people in my generation who grew up in the civil rights movement and both the wonderful and terrible events that surrounded it, people in my generation find it almost impossible to imagine what happened yesterday. For you I suspect it was much more imaginable, but I’m sure also a kind of miracle.

So I just feel that this is a moment of American history that will endure for generations, but I also think it’s a good time to look back over the generations of the people who contributed to this moment, it goes back for centuries. It’s just an extraordinary day. If you want to get a sense of the impact this has had around the world, go to the Huffington Post website…NOT NOW…and look at the photographs that they’ve collected from all over the world of people reacting to this. It’s not just us. This is an event that is echoing around the world.

So…back to the Great Depression…

Anuta Belova in Introduction to Aquatic Chemistry: “Everyone have donuts and muffins!! For a celebration! For an administration that finally believes in our cause, global warming. Not ‘let’s burn trees because we have too many.'”

Thomas Roma in Photo I: “My guy didn’t win… NADER ALL THE WAY!! No but seriously- if I were Barack Obama, I would have walked out on that stage and said “I’M BARACK OBAMA BITCH!!” He’s great. I love him. But listen, now that we have an African-American president, you guys have to stop complaining. You got the presidency, what more do you want?!”

My guy didn't win... NADER ALL THE WAY!! No but seriously- if I were Barack Obama, I would have walked out on that stage and said "I'M BARACK OBAMA BITCH!!" He's great. I love him. But listen, now that we have an African-American president, you guys have to stop complaining. You got the presidency, what more do you want?!-Thomas Roma, Photo I